Contents

Description

2011 Halloween Televison Special: See what happens when the student bodies of an all-vampire school and an all-werewolf school integrate with Monster High.

Summary

Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Clawd, Lagoona, Ghoulia, and Cleo have an appointment at the Maul to go see TwiHard IV: Abs of Intrigue. While waiting, Ghoulia buys herself a smoothie, but Cleo takes it from her and drinks it herself. Draculaura is late because she and Clawd discovered a sale and Draculaura just had to buy some of the outfits and accessories. Amused, the group makes their way to the theater where a long line has formed by then, mostly consisting of Belfry Prepvampires and Crescent Moon Highwerewolves. All of them react oddly on the sight of the group and Clawd theorizes it's because he, as a werewolf, and Draculaura, as a vampire, are friends. Frankie resolves to say something about it, ignoring Lagoona's and Clawdeen's protests. She loudly tells the vampires and werewolves present that Clawd and Draculaura are dating, causing even more muttering, at which point Lagoona finally gets to say she thinks the initial attention was because Draculaura has toilet paper stuck on her boot. The theater opens and the vampires and werewolves rush inside, trampling the Monster High students, who decide to catch a later show.

At school later on, the student body gets caught in the excitement of an announcement, for which they are asked to gather in the vampitheater. As the students speculate about the nature of the announcement, Draculaura and Clawdeen spot Howleen, Clawdeen's younger sister, looking for a place to sit. Clawdeen invites her over, but Howleen tells her she isn't going to sit with her big sister. Just then, Clawdeen notices that Howleen is using her old backpack and gets angry that Howleen again has been stealing stuff from her. The situation is broken when Ms. Crabgrass shows up on stage and announces that Headless Headmistress Bloodgood will begin her speech. Bloodgood shows up a moment later and cuts straight to the case: Monster High will be merging with Belfry Prep and Crescent Moon High to share the spirit of acceptance with monsters so opposed to each other as part of an experiment that is to bring all monsters together and eventually monsters and humans. Crabgrass and the students are shocked, but no one opposes the decision. Bloodgood appoints the Fear Squad as the welcoming committee, something that only excites Frankie. Later, as the Fear Squad prepares with the help of Ghoulia, Lagoona, and Gil, Frankie is both made clear that everyone is pessimistic about their chances of making werewolves and vampires get along and made leader of the project, as she remains postive and enthusiastic about the matter nonetheless. The group promises to help her as well as they can, including Abbey, who comes in to return Frankie's right arm after she threw it through the window by accident.

The next day, the Fear Squad welcomes the new students and all goes as disastrous as predicted. Cleo finds that the Belfry Prep student body doesn't respect her like the Monster High student body does, and the vampires and werewolves nearly get into a fight with each other. Frankie tries to argue they don't have to, pointing out that Clawdeen and Draculaura are best friends, which only makes the situation worse. Eventually, conflict is avoided by the appearance of Romulus, pack leader of the Crescent Moon High group, who tells his friends that they should not cause trouble on their first day. While this seems like a positive development, it is not. Cleo is deeply insulted by the way she was treated by Gory and refuses to let her and the other vampires on the Fear Squad. As she takes a drink from Ghoulia again, Frankie convinces her that if she accepts the new students, the rest of Monster High will follow her example. Cleo obliges, on the condition that she remains captain, which Frankie agrees with but Gory and her team disagree with. Later at the gym, Clawd and Romulus are playing a match of casketball and catching up on old times. When the vampires enter, Romulus's mood sours and gets worse when Clawd introduces Draculaura as his girlfriend. Again later, the group notices that the Belfry Prep vampires are manipulating the Monster High zombies into their service and that the Crescent Moon High werewolves are marking parts of Monster High as their territory. A minor incident over Draculaura brings two werewolves and three vampires nearly into a fight, causing Frankie and Abbey to rush to Bloodgood to discuss a plan before the situation escalates. They come up with a party at the cemetery—neutral ground—to get all groups to socialize.

The party initially is a disaster, as everyone is afraid to be the first to make contact and dance. On Frankie's urging, Clawd and Draculaura go first, and Abbey forces several other couples together on the dancefloor. This eases the mood and more couples form and join in dance and games, making the party a success. All are happy, except Crabgrass, who calls her boss, Administrator Van Hellscream, to inform him there is a problem. The next day, Van Hellscream shows up in Bloodgood's office. Bloodgood is elated, knowing Van Hellscream as a monster expert and promoter of human-monster relations, but Nightmare is immediately wary of the human. And with good reason, as Van Hellscream is threatened by the idea of monsters getting along and potentially teaming up against humans. He and Crabgrass use Gorgon Powder on Bloodgood to turn her into a statue, while Crabgrass takes on the appearance of Bloodgood so as to manipulate the school from within. Nightmare, the only witness to the event, is chained within Bloodgood's office. Van Hellscream wastes no time in both gaining sympathy from the students and subtly making them distrustful and hateful of other monster types. The biggest victim of this is Howleen, whom due to Van Hellscream's scheming gets beat up in the bathroom by three older vampires. Since Howleen refuses to let Clawdeen stand up for her, Romulus advises Howleen to take matters into her own hand.

Frankie and Abbey decide to talk with Bloodgood about Van Hellscream's presence, but Bloodgood won't listen to them. Frankie, however, notices that Nightmare panics in her presence and realizes that the woman she spoke to is not Bloodgood. During the unveiling of a statue, Frankie and Lagoona notice Bloodgood drinking with her finger, and along with other evidence, Frankie realizes the woman is actually Crabgrass. As the students wonder where the real Bloodgood is then, the statue is unveiled... leaving no guess as to what has happened to Bloodgood. Frankie seeks out Deuce to ask if there's an antidote to being petrified, and Deuce answers he'll ask his mother. Meanwhile, Howleen gets revenge on the vampires by launching pieces of garlic into the hallway they claimed as their territory, but is caught doing so by Hackington. She is sent to Van Hellscream, whom she is mildly surprised to not find angry. When he calls her special and asks her to be the leader of a new cultural group, Were Pride, her shield drops completely and she accepts the job without question.

Deuce returns to Frankie with news that there is a powder which needs to be administered during the first new moon, but also that no one has seen it in a good century. Frankie realizes that the suspicious box she saw earlier in Bloodgood's office must contain the powder, and she enlists Abbey, Lagoona, and Spectra to help her get Van Hellscream and Bloodgood away from the office. With the unexpected help of Nightmare, they succeed in their mission. Meanwhile, Clawd forces Draculaura to break up with him, Howleen becomes the much-respected leader of Were Pride, and Gory and Bram try to get a distraught Draculaura to join Vampowerment. Van Hellscream is aware of all these events and brings them together to work to his advantage. He sets a trap for Frankie and Abbey to capture them and Bloodgood that night, while he sends Draculaura a text message that makes it seem like Clawd wants to talk to her that night at the statue of Bloodgood, and also while he sends Howleen a text message that the vampires are planning to carve "Vampowerment" in Bloodgood's statue that night. Through this, he captures all five in one move and takes them to a place deep inside the catacombs. He explains that he had Draculaura and Howleen captured so that the vampires and werewolves would accuse each other of harming their kin, and that he wants the experiment that is Monster High to fail so that the monsters can never join forces against the humans. By his plan, the werewolves and vampires will be fighting by the time the Skullastic Superintendents arrive and Monster High will be closed. With all that said, he leaves his captives as food for the giant tentacles in the pit underneath their cage.

Though Clawd broke up with Draculaura, the rumor that the werewolves have harmed her infuriates him and he demands Romulus to tell him what happened. Romulus denies involvement and points out that, if anything, Clawd should be worried about what has happened to his little sister. Clawdeen joins him then, revealing that she went to talk with the vampires and that they swear they haven't harmed Howleen. With Frankie also missing and Bloodgood's statue gone, Clawdeen figures that Frankie was right and that Van Hellscream is behind all the disappearances. She and Clawd decide to first find their friends and family using their superior olfactory abilities. This leads them to the catacombs, where they get Operetta to be their guide. The captives have freed themselves meanwhile and are making their way outside when they are attacked by scargoyles. With combined strength, they manage to hold the creatures off just until Clawd, Clawdeen, and Operetta find them.

Aboveground, the fight is soon to break out. Cleo stops caring about her ill feelings towards the vampires and confesses she just wants her Monster High back. Again, she takes a drink from Ghoulia, but as she looks at her friend and considers how the vampires treat the zombies, she breaks down and tells Ghoulia that she is sorry and that the only reason she sometimes takes her for granted is because she can't imagine a life without her best friend.

Right before the fight can commence in the gym, Howleen and Draculaura burst in to tell both sides to stop. The werewolves and vampires are surprised to see their kin well and free, so Bloodgood and Frankie explain Van Hellscream's plan and why Monster High is such a threat to him. Realizing they've been manipulated for awful goals, the vampires and werewolves agree to peace and the entire student body gets together to quickly put up a party to leave a good impression with the Skullastic Superintendents. The plan succeeds, and after they've left, the students and Bloodgood confront and corner Van Hellscream and Crabgrass. Van Hellscream threatens to use one of his many potions and charms against the monsters, but Deuce beats him to it, petrifying both him and Crabgrass. Following this little interruption, the party continues.

Notes

References

The war between Fur and Fang is a reference to the modern belief that vampires and werewolves do not get along, such as in the Twilight and Underworld franchises.

The entrance of the vampires and werewolves is similar to the entrance of the two opposing vampire clans in Twilight, in which the high-standing vampires also arrived in expensive cars and the more feral werewolves were seen running through the woods.

"Fright On!" features the first and only mention of vampires' need to be invited before they can enter a place.

Van Hellscream mentions hostilities between vampires and werewolves, as per the TV special, salt water monsters and fresh water monster, as per Volume 2, and minotaurs and centaurs, which is new information.

Milestones

Since "Fright On!" is the main piece of fiction to promote the alternative outfits of the 'School's Out' line and everything from the Dead Tired line, all those items (Ghoulia's Dead Tired outfit being the sole exception) debut or have their only appearance in this TV special. In addition, Cleo's, Draculaura's, and Lagoona's rooms are shown for the first time (Frankie's was first shown in "New Ghoul @ School").

Errors

The sunglasses Draculaura has bought are her Gloom Beach sunglasses and she has worn those before in Volume 2.

Why are the werecats acting all surprised about the revelation that Clawd and Draculaura are dating? They already know and they don't care.

One would think that the merging of schools is enough of an invite for the Belfry Prep students to be able to enter Monster High.

When Romulus and Clawd shake hands in the gym, Romulus's earring momentarily moves from his left ear to his right ear.

As the Fear Squad discuss their first experiences with the new students, a throwaway-movement of Cleo's right arm keeps looping.

In the first shot in which Cleo wears her 'School's Out' clothes, her headband is red instead of gold.

When Holt appears at the cemetery party, his white-and-black shirt's colors are reversed.

During the scene in which Van Hellscream fixes Hoodude, Hoodude's eyes are switched around.

As Draculaura talks about how Clawd saved her from Heath, Romulus leans forward and his torso ends up not aligned with his hips.

Van Hellscream's claim that werewolves historically were known to carry diseases is perhaps true for the Monster High universe, but ironically inaccurate from a real world perspective. Aside from the werewolf curse itself, stories about disease-bringing werewolves are rare. In contrast, before novels like Carmilla and Dracula "humanized" vampires, common folklore had it that vampires were responsible for many of the diseases they couldn't explain or treat at that time, like tuberculosis.

During the scene in which Clawd rejects Draculaura in the creepateria, Romulus's head is mirrored.

Why does Hackington send Howleen to Van Hellscream instead of to Bloodgood? She still is the boss around Monster High and Van Hellscream merely a guest.

"Werepride" is an odd name for the werewolves to call their movement. The most accepted theory on the etymology of "werewolf" is that the "were" part comes from the archaic word for "man", essentially making "Werepride" the equivalent of "Manpride", which doesn't seem like what they were going for. Even leaving the etymology of "werewolf" out of it, "were-" is an ambiguous way to refer to a group of werewolves, since "were-" is also featured in the species name of other monsters, like werecats. And the Werepride movement definitely is a wolf-only thing. Had they just called it "Wolfpride", that would have been more clear.

Though the student bodies of the different schools come to accept one another, there's no mention how matters of double sport teams and therefore double captains are going to be solved.

Other

While Van Hellscream's belief that the humans would be hunted down if the monsters would stop fighting each other makes his actions understandable, it is unknown what the motivations of Ms. Crabgrass are.